The directions are well written and easy to follow. They offer several options for installation, in ground, above ground, with a fence, around gardens and trees, etc. They are thorough and easy to follow. After installing the unit, I tested it per the instructions and everything was working. There are 5 levels of electric stimulus. The collars are fully adjustable for the shock level, the controller adjusts the distance the collar starts to activate. I bet the reviewers that said their dogs didn't respond probably didn't understand the wall controller does not control the level of shock. The collar has a separate adjustment for the level of shock; 1-5. The wall controller adjusts the width of the zone, 2' wide to 10' wide. If your collar is one level 1 (low) and the width is at 10 (maximum), your dog will not get a shock, only a low level beep. You must adjust the collar to 5 (high) to train the dog the first time. One or two zaps and the dog will learn to associate the warning beep with a zap. Then you adjust the shock level down to 2 or 3 for most dogs; higher for stubborn dogs with thick fur. There are longer (included) contact points for dogs with thick fur (shepherds, collies, etc). the short contacts will not work on dogs with thick fur. If in doubt, try both sets and see if the longer contacts work better. Dogs need a visual barrier, they won't remember the wire is buried, once they associate the visual barrier with the electric fence, your problems are solved.Why is this a 10 star review? One of my dogs was bored and saw the controller and thought it would be a good chew toy. I came home and found it mangled and in 15 pieces strewn across the carpet. When I called to buy a replacement controller, offered to replace it for free! I wasn't expecting that, but I certainly wasn't going to refuse their kind gesture.Thank you .I would have written the same review (5 star) even without the replacement, but they really do stand behind their product even when it obviously wasn't a factory defect and deserve 10 stars. ...

I was skeptical and really didn't think it would work. After installing the boundary wire we had some difficulty in adjusting the collar. The first step instructs you to "remove the battery". That totally made the following steps nonsense. However, I contacted customer service and received the instructions that I needed. The support agent agreed that there was a problem with the manual and hopefully they will get that fixed. Now to the effectiveness of the boundary wire. It only took my German Sheppard 3 days to respect the boundaries. She "jumped" the "fence" one time while chasing a squirrel. She received the correction and then was afraid to return back in to the yard. I solved that problem by driving the van out of the yard and she came back in with the van. (She doesn't get shocked while in a vehicle). So now it is a pleasure to be able to allow her freedom from the leash and to be outside (she has an acre or more to run in). ...

Our little beagle is in heaven! He gets to stay outside and do his thing without the restrictions of a lead or us constantly calling him. He was 6 months old when we installed it. We didn't put out any flags or markers. We just let him roam. He has minded the beep and only been shocked when trying to follow my husband over to the neighbors yard. That happened once! We are fans! UPDATE June 2018 18 Months later Bandit is still king of his own yard! We put in some new landscaping around the house and added wiring to that area, now he can't dig or poop in the flower beds. The only times he has escaped are when we were not aware the battery was dead. Now we change it every 3 months. This also tells me he does test the fence, he is not complacent and still wants to roam. The fence is perfect! ...

Great product, would recommend to anyone. Took about 3 hours total for me because my backyard has some trees I had to go around but mainly just zip tied it to my existing chain-link fence, staple gun for the wooden fence/side of the house, and burried around the AC unit so they wouldn’t tear anything up around there. My 2 lab mix puppies had learned to climb the chain-link and were getting into my neighbor’s yard and to the front yard (luckily always stayed close by) so I was fearing they would get hit by a car and didn’t want them in my neighbors’ yards. We tried them inside but due to them being puppies they just wanted to tear up stuff (which they did) so I put them on leads but then they couldn’t run around as much and kept getting tangled in the trees. I was about to spend about the same amount of money on 2 large kennels so I figured I’d try this out and I’m glad I did. Saved a bunch of money over the competitors and even got the extra collar all for about $200 and the install was very easy, just time consuming. I do recommend using a drill to twist the wires, so much easier. Didn’t need to really train them like the manual said, just took a couple shocks and they learned the boundaries. They hated it the first couple days cause they didn’t understand why they were being shocked but after a couple days they started going back to their normal selves, running around and playing together and now know their limits. I don’t agree with the level system for our dogs. I consider them “very hyper” but 4 and 5 was way too high for them but 3 seemed to work just fine. As for the boundary limit, I just had to kind of mess around with it and 6 seems to be a good boundary for our needs. All in all, extremely happy so far (couple weeks in). ...

Our little beagle is in heaven!

It took us a while to get to actually putting up this Basic In-Ground Fence. It can seem like a very daunting task. One thing I suggest is that you really map out where you want to have your fence set up before you even get it out. We made the mistake of mounting the plug where we thought we were going to run it from, and then completely changing our minds and it was a bit of a hassle. It can get quite confusing if you are wanting to block off multiple areas, like we blocked off our garden area as well as did around the perimeter, so it is definitely best to plan it out beforehand. Once it was up and running we got the collar fitted and used the larger prongs for our german shepherd pit mix. There are different strength settings on them and we had it in the middle and he jumped our fence no issues. Since then we have turned it all the way up for him. He went to jump the fence and made a yipped and back stepped. Then he went for the fence once more, and hasn't done it since. It took him and our other pup a while to map out where they are allowed and where they are not allowed to ho in the yard, but once they got it they are doing well. I have to say the first week the poor pups were scared to go out and we had to force them out. I think I was worried that we ruined the outside for them, but once they learned their boundaries they have been much better. That was a few weeks ago and this week they have been outside WITHOUT the collars with ZERO issues. I can even leave our gate open and they know they are not allowed to cross that wire barrier. I am so glad this has helped us! And I hope it continues so that we can eventually remove the wires as well and trust they will stay in the yard.~Thanx~ ...